Travel Guide To Tobago

Where to stay in Tobago

BLUE HAVEN HOTEL

Robinson Crusoe Beach Resorts, Bacolet Bay, Scarborough, Tobago (00 1 868 660 7400; fax: 660 7900; www.bluehavenhotel.com). Situated on a tumbling low cliff on the Atlantic Ocean side of the island, the ultra-chic Blue Haven Hotel has a lot of history. It has been here, high on Bacolet Point, for more than half a century and was restored and reopened in December 2000. The vintage Mark X Jaguar parked in the courtyard recalls the hotel's heyday when Rita Hayworth, Jack Lemmon and Elizabeth Taylor came to stay. In 1962, Queen Elizabeth II hosted a cocktail party on the terrace of the Blue Haven Hotel to celebrate Trinidad and Tobago's independence from Britain. The more contemporary touches are particularly appreciated by the more demanding guests. The suites are much larger than the old ones, with balconies fitted with colonial-style teak furniture; and the bathrooms, with their plate-glass showers that allow views across the suite to the ocean beyond, have become the new Blue Haven signature feature. Things to do include scuba-diving, fishing trips and there is a sandy golf course down on the flats; but probably the best thing is the masseur, who visits on request. £££

ARNOS VALE HOTEL

Advertisement

(00 1 868 639 2881; fax: 639 4629; email: arnosval@opus.co.tt). Arnos Vale is set on a 400-care estate hidden away on the north coast. Dominated by an old plantation house, from which you can walk down the steep path through a luxuriant valley to the pool and beyond to a pretty, private beach. The 38 rooms stand on the green hillside around the old estate house, by the pool or overlooking the beach. £££

KARIWAK VILLAGE

Read next

A insider's guide to Costa Smeralda, Sardinia: Italy's jet-set island

Kariwak Village, Crown Point, Tobago (00 1 868 639 8442; fax: 639 8441; www.kariwak.com; email: kariwak@tstt.net.tt). Hidden among exotic bushes and herb gardens close to the airport, Kariwak village is billed as a 'holistic haven and hotel'. There are yoga classes, spiritual gatherings and herbal teas served alongside the rum punches. The wood and palm-thatch roofed cabins are nestled around the pool in a superb tropical garden. The 24 rooms are air-conditioned and have phones but are a bit small and set cheek by jowl. Kariwak is not on the beach, but there is a shuttle to Pigeon Point. £

VILLA BEING

Advertisement

Arnos Vale, Tobago (00 1 868 625 4443; fax: 625 4420; www.being-tobago.com; email: being@tstt.net.tt or contact ITC Classics on 0870 751 9380). The villa is set in a remote patch of jungle high above the Caribbean Sea, on the north coast, which overlooks Arnos Vale. It is not a hotel or a resort and has a very silly name, but offers a veritable spot of paradise. It is a fully staffed and catered villa with three semi-self-contained suites, one per couple of rock stars, movie folk or City millionaires. Built around breezes and views, letting the outdoors slip naturally into the indoors, with a pool overlooking the treetops above its own private bay, the villa has been created to bring happiness to even the most jaded hedonists. The resident butler brings a glass of planter's punch, the glass sweating in the tropical afternoon heat, and the housekeeper leads the way to the bathroom where you walk out onto the balcony, cantilevered over the edge of the cliff, for a cascading shower under the open sky. ££££

Unlike some of its louder neighbours, Tobago has a quirky, rather British charm. This is where you will find laid-back life in classic Caribbean island style. Leave the crowds and carnivals behind in favour of tree-house restaurants and champagne at sunset. Head to the beautiful, secluded coves of the north coast and the unspoiled eastern side of the island, where you will find its jungle-capped volcano, 1950s chemists’ shops in Scarborough and iced-coconut stands on the beach at Bloody Bay.

Where to eat out in Tobago

JEMMAS

Read next

The best things to do in the Cotswolds

There aren't many restaurants on the island, but try the fresh fish at Jemma's, an on-the-beach, tree-house restaurant up near the end of the stony road at Speyside, where the tables are perched on platforms wedged into the giant branches of an old cotton tree. The women in the kitchen make their own-recipe hot sauce and will sell you some in a honey jar to take home.

Advertisement

THE BLUE HAVEN HOTEL

The Blue Haven Hotel (see Where to stay) has what is probably the best restaurant on the island. The kitchen produces modern fusion cuisine using local ingredients such as red mullet and Scotch bonnet peppers. Take advantage of the hotel's offer of picnic baskets for trips over the volcano to Englishman's Bay.

Read next

Our essential guide to London

Most watersports, including snorkelling, kayaking, windsurfing and scuba diving, can be arranged directly through the hotels or at Pigeon Point beach.

ARGYLL WATERFALLS

For the hyperactive, there isn't much in the way of organised tours, although 'eco-tours' can be arranged through the Blue Haven Hotel; which essentially consist of 20-minute strolls to the Argyll waterfalls and Natural Park in the Tobago Forest Reserve, the world's first legally protected rainforest. The guides supply green wellies for the mud.

SCARBOROUGH

Tobago's main town clambers over a hill above Rockley Bay, on the south coast of the island. With a population of 10,000, the town has a ramshackle charm. Don't miss the funky little market with its cornucopia of gaudy T-shirts, calypso tapes, gold chains, plastic cricket bats and baskets of red-hot Scotch bonnet peppers.

How to get to Tobago

AIRPORT

Advertisement

Tobago's Crown Point airport is served by some direct international flights from Europe and the USA, most of them charter flights. Scheduled flights from the UK usually involve a connection via Port of Spain in Trinidad.

AIRLINES FROM THE UK

British Airways (0845 773 3377; www.britishairways.co.uk) flies three times a week from Gatwick to Tobago in November. BWIA (020 8577 1100; www.bwee.com) flies daily from Heathrow to Tobago.